WTF 12/9: Happiness is a warm gun… really?

Happiness is a warm gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
When I hold you in my arms, And I feel my finger on your trigger, I know nobody can do me no harm.

As the murder tolls go up and up… from all the terrorists… and that includes ISIS (aka ISIL or Daesh), Boku Haram, crazed asses who want to stop Planned Parenthood, or, simply deranged people who kill children at grade schools, or in movie theaters or on any cities/towns streets or those who are there to protect us, our police officers… because all of these forms of killing… of murder… are just that… terrorism.

Let’s get real… people who go out and murder other people are all terrorists… regardless if they murder one or ten or a twenty… a hundred… or thousands… murdering people is an act of terrorism.

So… as the murder tolls go up and up, we hear the call from some wing nut politicians that we need to arm all of our citizens and that will stop the terrorism… or… at least limit how much the terrorists will be successful when they do attempt to kill people.

And ya’ll know what?

That is just craziness. In reality it will probably just get more people killed. And many of those killed will be even mostly innocent folks that might have had a chance to be alive if a bunch of non pros weren’t out there shooting off their weapons willy nilly.

Words from a former top cop…

Former NYC commissioner of police… Ray Kelly… listen up…

On a NY radio show, Kelly recently said, “I don’t think we need more guns on the streets in this city or in this country. I am concerned about the wholesale increase of people carrying guns (in the U.S.). By definition, they are not going to be particularly well-trained.”

And… “If you have a tumultuous situation where someone who is not well-trained take(s) out a gun, you can compound that mayhem. Just imagine what the percentage would be if you significantly increased the number of people who had guns and who were not properly trained.”

Kelly says that even most well-trained gun-users that we are most commonly associated with… cops… only hit their intended targets a fraction of the time.

So, imagine if we go around letting everyone carry concealed weapons… now we got all these peeps out here with these loaded articles of destruction going out half-cocked and cowboying it and thinking they all is gonna save the world when what all will most likely happen is that they wind up shooting… and maybe killing… the wrong people or wind up getting their own asses shot to hell.

Why and how?

This…

Terrified society…

Most peeps that say they are in favor of arming everyone usually are doing the Walter Mitty thing and see themselves as the guy in the white hat that pulls out his gun and stops the bad guy from doing his bad guy stuff.

But, really what happens is what Robert Spitzer suggests in an op-ed piece he recently wrote (12/6) in the NYDN, “… real life is often very different from imagined scenarios or Hollywood movies.”

He then adds something that is very akin to what Ray Kelly says, “… civilians with guns are amateurs, not professionals. Even police, trained professionals who carry firearms as part of their job and who undergo systematic training, may react adversely under live fire. A 10-year study of New York City police who discharged their weapons in the line of duty found that they hit their intended targets less than a third of the time. Similar studies of other police departments reported even lower numbers. In 2012, police who confronted a gunman at the Empire State Building shot nine bystanders.”

Spitzer also says “… a live-fire event is chaotic and usually occurs rapidly. The San Bernardino shooting unfolded in less than four minutes. An armed, well-meaning civilian might be taken for a perpetrator. An armed civilian would likely add to the chaos, might shoot another innocent or wind up a casualty by injecting herself into the line of fire… of police or of the perpetrator… instead of running or hiding.”

And then he finally adds that “… if civilians are regularly carrying guns to work or elsewhere in anticipation of trouble, that means more guns that can be lost, stolen, fired accidentally, used in a suicidal act, or that transform a routine argument into a lethal encounter. Examples of all of these things abound. Even in the case of the police, many of the unjustified police shootings that have dominated recent news occurred at least in part because police relied too readily on their guns to resolve a dispute.

(Spitzer is distinguished service professor of political science at SUNY Cortland, and the author of five books on gun policy, including “Guns Across America.”)

And…

Back in 2013, Michael Shermer wrote an article in Scientific American (The science of Guns Proves arming Citizens Is a Bad Idea…”) that said, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31,672 people died by guns in 2010, a staggering number that is of (a) magnitude higher than that of comparable Western democracies. What can we do about it? National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre believes he knows: ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’ If LaPierre means professionally trained police and military who routinely practice shooting at ranges, this observation would at least be partially true. If he means armed private citizens with little to no training, he could not be more wrong.”

Shermer further wrote that a 1998 Study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that “every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides.”

He then adds that “Pistol owners’ fantasy of blowing away home-invading bad guys or street toughs holding up liquor stores is a myth debunked by the data showing that a gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a criminal assault, an accidental death or injury, a suicide attempt or a homicide than it is for self-defense.”

He also states that “… in addition to the 31,672 people killed by guns in 2010, another 73,505 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for nonfatal bullet wounds, and 337,960 nonfatal violent crimes were committed with guns. Of those 31,672 dead, 61 percent were suicides, and the vast majority of the rest were homicides by people who knew one another.”

He then finally adds “Another myth to fall to the facts is that gun-control laws disarm good people and leave the crooks with weapons. Not so, say the Johns Hopkins authors: ‘Strong regulation and oversight of licensed gun dealers… defined as having a state law that required state or local licensing of retail firearm sellers, mandatory record keeping by those sellers, law enforcement access to records for inspection, regular inspections of gun dealers, and mandated reporting of theft of loss of firearms…was associated with 64 percent less diversion of guns to criminals by in-state gun dealers.”

Not convinced yet?

A guy goes into a Phoenix gun show, buys a gun and then freaking shoots one of his buddies with the weapon.

Right… the dude buys the gun and then is checking it out without first making sure the gun wasn’t loaded and that the safety was engaged and shot his pal.

The victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.

Ironically, the gun show says on its website, “No loaded firearms and no loaded magazines are permitted in any Crossroads gun show. Your personal safety is our number one priority while you are at the show.”

And… for extra emphasis they have a sign posted outside their entrances that say: “NO LOADED GUNS IN THE SHOW.”

And, the local gendarmes are investigating if someone broke the rules.

Ya freaking think?

Come on, I gotta say the fact that the gun went off and a bullet entered into someone’s body that someone somehow loaded that gun and, by definition, broke the damn rules.

The point of it all…

The point of all of this is that when loaded guns are in the hands of nonprofessionals ya just never what the results are gonna be… we start allowing everyone to carry around loaded guns in our society this type of story will become routine and commonplace.

In fact, I’m willing to bet the total number of shootings… be it by suicide, armed conflict because of domestic disputes of some peeps arguing over good knows what, or, because someone did a Plaxico on hisself/herself and wounds his/her… or someone else’s… ass because he/she discharges their weapon accidentally… goes up dramatically, if, we start letting every Tom, Dick and Harriet go armed with weapons that are most likely half-cocked and ready to go off at a moment’s notice.

I ain’t trying to stop anyone from having a gun… but one more time… you can have that gun after you take and pass a course on gun handling and safety that includes education on safe guarding your weapons in secure locked places and having all your weapons fitted with trigger guards… and you pass that course with a grade of 95% or better.

Is that too much to ask?

I reckon it is to much if your name is Wayne LaPierre… or Ted Cruz… or Donald Trump… or Jerry Falwell… or Rudy Giuliani… or Marco Rubio… or almost anyone who identifies themselves as an elephant candidate for the presidency of the US of A…

All I am saying is lets do all we can to stop the killing… every single thing that we can do to keep guns away from peeps who shouldn’t have access to guns… it just needs to be done.

It won’t stop all the killing that goes on every day… it won’t stop all the bad guys from getting guns… it won’t stop all the mentally disturbed people from having gun access… but, it sure as hell won’t make it any easier for any of them peeps to get a damn gun either.

Yeah, I know… I’m probably speaking to the choir here but on the off chance someone might read this column today and maybe engage their grey matter and say… hmmmm… I’ll take the chance…

I’ll take the chance that one by one, if it has to be that way, we can get it done… to paraphrase that song…

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may not listen but someone might… and, if two people, two people do it, they may think “hmmm”… and, if, three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people saying “Stop the killing. Gun control Now!”… people may think it’s a movement. And that’s what it is, the Citizens of the World Against Gun Violence Movement…

God ain’t fixing this…

Somehow, the human race, in all of its convoluted realities, got itself into this mess and we all got to get ourselves out of it…

That’s just the way it is…

The only other reality is too sad and sick to accept.

The Good Guys…

“I’ll take a bullet before you do, that’s for damn sure. Try to relax, everyone. Try to relax.”

Those words were heard from a recorded clip that someone had recorded that was inside the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center that was under attack by a murderous couple…

“Try to relax, everyone. Try to relax. I’ll take a bullet before you do, that’s for damn sure”

An unidentified police officer… who had sworn to serve and to protect the citizens of his community took this oath very dam seriously… said those words.

I don’t know if that dude has yet to be identified but I hope he has and I hope he gets awarded a damn medal for what he did…put his life in the line of fire to protect people who were threatened by assholes with murder on their minds…

We hear so much bad stuff about cops…and when they do bad it should be exposed… we need to praise cops when they do the right thing… just like this cop…

And I betcha the son of a bitch was scared, too… but… he did what he was trained to do…what he swore he would do… he protected folks who needed protecting. He put his ass in harm’s way to keep folks safe.

The dude is a hero… as were all the first responders that day…

Then there’s this bad guy… gal…

In Nevada, elephant Assemblyperson Michele Fiore said on a Las Vegas radio show, “I am not OK with Syrian refugees. I’m not OK with terrorists. I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out, just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life. I’m good with that.”

Michelle Fiore (l)

Ex- fucking-cuse me?????????????????

I’m not ok with your fucking threatening anyone, bitch… and… no, I won’t rethink the use of that word I just used in reference to her. Because, when she acts like a snotty, self centered, ignorant person with murder in her heart that is exactly what she should be called… a bitch…

But… now that I stop and reflect… that really is an insult to all the four legged female canines out there that we call dogs.

Unfortunately, I don’t even have a word for her and the way she thinks… this being… this lower than the lowest form of life that can be imagined that wants to put freaking holes in people because they are Syrian refugees. The part about terrorists I’m kinda ok with, but that’s not what she said… she said she was not ok with Syrian refugees… she just threw that other terrorist part in there to justify the hate that she was spewing… which was… that she would put them down as if they were sick animals at death’s door… she would black them out as if they don’t matter… she would put some brass in their eyeball holes and end their lives.

The truth?

She is the one who needs to have her life put into some sort of abeyance… not ended like she would do to the Syrians who need a safe haven… but… put into suspension… she needs a serious time-out.

If, I had the power, I would place her under arrest with the minimum charge of threatening… oh… say for at least a thousand charges or so, depending on the amount of refugees that were supposed to come to Nevada looking for a place to be safe from tyranny, hate and certain poverty and possible death from racist bigoted assholes… except that they are met right here, where they seek a place of sanctuary, with another racist bigoted asshole who wants to give them death instead of hope.

Fiore made recent headlines with a Christmas card with family members holding firearms

People like this piece of dung are just one reason why I feel the way I do about the need for gun laws. Unfortunately, this piece of dung is probably nice and legal in the minds of those who make the decisions that allow folks like her to have guns… Except… now she has threatened the lives of thousands of innocent people…

I really question why we as a society sometimes exist. I’ve mentioned this in past columns; I will mention it here…10,000 plus years of civilization and this is where we are? People… we need to do better than this. We need to do better than someone named Michele Fiore.

A flicker of hope…

In Portland, Maine… Monument Square to be exact… hundreds of folks give me hope that maybe after 10,000 plus years of civilization that someone does understand what it should be all about…

Those Maine-iac people turned out to demonstrate and show solidarity with those who are running scared from a life full of danger and of little hope to a place where they might start over that gives them hope that they will have the chance to have better lives than they had ever dreamt about.

The rally was sponsored by the Portland Racial Justice Congress and members of the organization who spoke said they were making a statement against hateful rhetoric against those refugees who seek to come to America seeking a port of hope and safety… especially Muslims. One member said, “… not only is this a problem as far as a need to continue the American legacy of accepting immigrants, it’s also a problem of stigmatizing people who are already here, who are Americans, and who are Muslim.”

The rally was also cosponsored by other Portland organizations that also think and believe that people deserve a chance to come to America to live here and be free of tyranny.

Whew… there is hope for us, after all…

But then again…

As if it ain’t easy peasy lemon squeezy to get a gun if you really want one… along comes this…. A new 24-hour channel called GunTV. They already have their calling card… or slogan… “Live shopping. Fully loaded.”

And, they will sell you a gun all day, at all hours…

In the coming year, they already have at least one cable provider who will debut the channel as of January 20.

Their press release says… “The first live on-air transactional firearms, munitions and related consumer goods sales network in the world. Dynamic hosts and visually stunning sets bring to life for consumers broadcast segments as diversified as women’s concealed weapons apparel, and generational grandfather, father, son big game hunting and camping, just to name a few.”

Yep… that’s a real piece of promotional literature from their parent company… ahem… The Social Responsibility Network.

Now, it won’t be as easy as calling up Jim-Bob and saying… “Hey, there…I like that AK ya’ll wuz showing can ya’l l send me… oh say… bout a half dozen or so of them there guns?”

Nope… to make it all legal and comply with gun laws, the channel will place an order on behalf of a customer with Sports South, a Louisiana-based gun distributor. The gun will then be shipped to a local vendor, which will finalize the sale and complete mandatory background checks and other paperwork.

Still… it’s making it so damn easy in America to get yourself a gun…

Hell, why go to gun shows now… all ya have to do is find your gun channel, set your ass down in the comfy of your living room, on your favorite recliner, with beer in hand… or joint… or… maybe both… then check out the newest and baddest weaponry and call that number on the screen and Jim-boob or whoever will place your order pronto… and… before you know it, you too can own a nice new weapon of your choice to go hunting down whatever…

Now, they do say the in the promotional video that the channel will address the need for education, information and safety regarding firearms commerce in America… while they offer you the chance to buy your ass enough weaponry to blow your ass, and anyone else’s ass in your vicinity, to hell and back. (I made that last part up… about blowing the asses to hell and back… they didn’t say that.)

They did say this… “The gun sales environment in America is fertile.” They also noted there be big money in guns…for instance, in 2013 alone, firearms and munitions generated $37.7 billion.

One of the founders also said, “We saw an opportunity in filling a need, not creating one. I don’t really know that it’s going to put more guns on the streets.”

Don Kaplan wrote in an article for the NY Daily News… “That’s like wondering if opening up another Burger King or McDonalds is going to mean more burgers on the street… as if Americans needed more guns or food joints.”

Nuff said…

Before I bring on the gratuitous pictures of the week…

I am going to break with precedent and present the segment that I call… “… another thousand words” first, and, say some words about the picture…

Sunday night in Calgary, a minor league hockey game was delayed because of teddy bears. Say what?

The Calgary Hitmen of the WHL held their 21st annual “Teddy Bear Toss”, where fans are told to throw stuffed bears onto the ice after a Hitmen scores a goal. The Hitmen have been doing the Teddy Bear Toss since 1995, when they collected 1,323 bears. Sunday, the fans broke the record by tossing 28,815 teddies onto the ice after Jordy Stollard scored 2:41 into the second period to start the Teddy Bear blizzard.

The accompanying picture has members of the Hitmen acting like little boys in heaven as they played around in the “crush” of the pile of teddy bears…

I said it last week and I’ll say it now… It ain’t as bad as we think, bothers and sisters… sometimes I dwell on some sad and nasty-ass stuff in WTF… but ya know… there is hope for us… for us all… believe it or not…

An early Merry Christmas to ya’ll… go give someone a teddy bear if ya’ll can… make someone smile…

This week’s gratuitous pictures…

Kelly Gale (20) is a Swedish fashion model of partial Indian heritage…

Welcome to our Second Political Roundtable. Note: Questions went out Friday, Pre-Nevada. 1. Should women have to register for Selective Service? John: I am not in favor of anyone needing to register for Selective Service. […]